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Kayla Welch was born 14 weeks early on May 20, 2005, in Louisiana and experienced health issues including a hole in her heart. Three months later, Hurricane Katrina hit.

For two weeks during the chaos of the hurricane, both Kayla and her parents were separated from each other as she was being cared for at a Baton Rouge hospital

“I tell everybody, "This kid here, she is a miracle baby,” mom Paula Norris Welch says of Kayla, who is now a college student

Today, Kayla Welch is a healthy 20-year-old woman with a bright future ahead of her, including a college degree that's just months away. But twenty years ago, she came into the world as a premature baby with a hole in her heart — and she was still in the hospital when Hurricane Katrina hit .

“I tell everybody, 'This kid he

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